Avalara Acquires FuelQuest’s Excise Tax Software Solutions / Latest addition consolidates sales and use tax with excise tax automation for comprehensive energy-based tax determination, compliance, and collection processing

Avalara, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based software that delivers a broad and growing array of compliance solutions related to sales tax and other transactional taxes, today announced it has acquired the entire line of Zytax energy-related tax automation solutions for U.S. and international jurisdictions. Incorporating Zytax’s products now provides retail fuel and energy companies with a single source for all their transactional tax processing needs. Avalara acquired the Zytax offering from FuelQuest, a provider of on-demand software and services for global downstream energy companies. 

Fuel excise taxes are some of the most complex and difficult taxes for businesses today to process accurately and efficiently.  Zytax offers three cloud-based solutions that address this complexity. Its flagship product, Zytax Compliance, enables on-time, signature-ready motor fuels excise tax filing and audit defense through automation of the end-to-end filing process. Zytax Determination identifies and calculates energy taxes, providing financial control and transparency across a wide range of product types including petroleum, natural gas, and biodiesel.  Finally, Zytax Government increases fuel revenue collections by easing returns filing submission, processing, and auditing for government agencies.

“This acquisition continues Avalara’s longstanding strategy of extending our reach into new industries, providing more businesses with a single place to turn for all of their transactional tax requirements,” said Avalara founder and CEO Scott McFarlane. “A primary objective for our company in an acquisition is that we gain either industry-leading tax content, automation technology, or expert personnel; and, in this case, we have achieved all three.”

“As a leading provider of cloud-based sales tax automation services, Avalara is the ideal complement for Zytax and its customers,” said Matt Tormollen, former FuelQuest CEO and now executive vice president and general manager of Avalara’s newly formed Excise Tax Division.  “The energy industry has long demanded a single solution to drive accuracy across all tax areas.  Avalara is now the company that can meet that demand.”

Over the past decade, Avalara has developed, purchased, or licensed databases containing deep tax data and knowledge related to sales tax and other transactional taxes, including tens of thousands of state and local tax rules, rates, and exemption conditions, as well as more than ten million UPC codes linked to taxability rules. Today Avalara maintains and continually updates an extensive library of tax content, enabling tax decisions on millions of products in multiple industries worldwide.

Avalara’s acquisition of excise tax automation software and expertise is the company’s latest move to broaden and deepen its tax content domestically and internationally. “Well-researched and maintained content is the lynchpin for any accurate tax decision,” said McFarlane. “People tend to focus on rates, but it takes extensive tax knowledge to identify and interpret the rules that underlie energy excise taxes as well as to stay current with the frequent changes that occur.  This addition extends our reach by helping make compliance more accurate for tens of billions of dollars of energy-related excise taxes per year.”

About Avalara – Making Sales Tax Less Taxing.
Avalara helps businesses of all sizes achieve compliance with sales tax and other transactional tax requirements by delivering comprehensive, automated, cloud-based solutions that are fast, accurate, and easy to use.  Avalara’s end-to-end suite of solutions are designed to effectively manage the complicated and burdensome tax compliance obligations imposed by state, local, and other taxing authorities in the United States and internationally.

Avalara is integrated with leading accounting, ERP, ecommerce and other business applications. Founded in 2004 and privately-held, Avalara’s venture capital investors include Battery Ventures, Sageview Capital, Arthur Ventures, and other institutional and individual investors. Avalara employs more than 500 people at its headquarters on Bainbridge Island, WA and in offices across the U.S. and in London, England and Pune, India.

In connection with this transaction, Greenberg Traurig, LLP served as legal counsel and JMP Securities acted as exclusive financial advisor to FuelQuest, Inc.  DLA Piper LLP (US) acted as legal counsel to Avalara.